SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — There’s no swagger when you enter the Arizona Diamondbacks clubhouse, but there’s an abundance of confidence. 

There’s no arrogance; there’s self-assurance. 

The final team to earn a playoff berth last season came within three games of being the last team standing. 

The Diamondbacks surprised the Milwaukee Brewers in the wild-card round. Swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the division series. Shocked the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League championship series. 

And made the Texas Rangers sweat in the World Series. 

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Now, here they are, back for an encore, expecting to be playing deep into October.

The same team that had the Dodgers spending $1.2 billion this winter to assure they’re not pushed aside again by the D-backs in the postseason, certainly is a better team than it was when we saw them last.

They signed starter Eduardo Rodriguez, who was already an Arizona hero for refusing to accept a trade to the Dodgers at last year’s trade deadline, to a four-year, $80 million contract. They acquired veteran third baseman Eugenio Suarez from Seattle. They signed Joc Pederson to be their left-handed hitting DH.

“We are a better team,’ D-backs ace Zac Gallen said. “But now, we’ve got to prove it. We feel in this clubhouse that we should make the postseason every year. That’s our goal. Now, we’ve got to go out and finish the job.” 

The D-backs are reminding themselves that they were merely an 84-win team last season. If not for the Chicago Cubs’ collapse, they would have been sitting home. So, it’s not as if they’re waltzing into camp believing they can start printing playoff tickets. 

“I’m very proud of what we accomplished last year,’ D-backs GM Mike Hazen said. “There were a a lot of incredible moments for us. And it’s over. We have a lot of things to improve upon. … 

“We won 84 games last year. We were the last team last team into the playoffs. That’s not really a sustainable position to put the team in moving forward.’

Besides worrying about Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the rest of the Dodgers’ insanely talented team, they also have a new challenge: 

Expectations. 

“We’re going to talk about a standard rather than expectation,’ manager Torey Lovullo said. “I think that’s a good way to avoid that because expectations can become burdensome. You look at them, you set then up, and then you start to achieve something that may or may not be attainable. It might create a limitation. 

“So I’m going to talk about a standard. We have raised the bar here considerably over the past two years.’ 

The D-backs now are expected to win, expected to be in the playoffs, and expected to have as much of a chance as anyone else to be playing in the World Series. 

“We have to embrace it,’ Hazen said. “You want to be a good organization, you want to be a perennial playoff contender then the expectation is that you’re going to go out and be able to play a quality brand of baseball for 162 games. 

“The reality is that if you want to be a good team, you have to deal with that. You have to be able to embrace it. If you don’t embrace it, you’re not going to be successful.’ 

Besides, expectations are a good thing. Would you rather deal with the expectations of being a contender or be on the Oakland A’s or a team just hoping not to lose 100 games? 

“I’m sure a lot of people across the league thought what we did last year was a fluke,’ Gallen said. “We have the mindset that we need to prove it again. So in this clubhouse, guys embrace it, really.  

“Obviously, with success you can become complacent, but that’s not the personality in this clubhouse. Guys this offseason were working out just as hard as if we didn’t make the playoffs.’ 

Said closer Paul Sewald: “The E-word is dangerous in spring training. You can’t block them out. You can’t pretend they’re not there. But we can’t worry about those things. I mean, last year at this time everyone had the Mets and the Padres facing each other in the NLCS. 

“This team didn’t go into last year expecting to be three wins from the World Series. They just expected to surprise. … I’d be disappointed if we don’t win at least 86, 88 games, and on Oct. 1, we’re a playoff team. 

“And as we showed last year, you get hot in October, and anything can happen.’

They also realize that if they didn’t get hot in September, they never would have had an October. 

“Realistically, we can’t rely on having the season we had last year with 84 wins and making the playoffs,’’ said outfielder Corbin Carroll, the runaway NL Rookie of the Year winner. “We’ve got to do more in order to guarantee ourselves where we want to be at the end of the year.’

Besides, the D-backs will tell you, they also have an ulterior motive. 

They want to make sure their manager stays fit next winter and actually shows up in shape next spring 

Lovullo gained 10 pounds in the offseason after learning that fans have a tendency to take him a little too seriously. 

Lovullo, after losing the World Series to the Rangers, said in the Game 5 postgame press conference: “I want to run away and hide for a few days. I want to go camping and just sit in the tent and suck my thumb and eat ice cream.’

There was no camping, or thumb-sucking, but yes, lots and lots of ice cream were delivered to Lovullo’s home. 

“I don’t know how they got the flavors right,” Lovullo said. “But I’m chocolate-peanut butter and it just kept showing up, chocolate-peanut butter, and it was great.” 

Fernando Tatis Jr. is rejuvenated

San Diego Padres right fielder Ferando Tatis Jr. believes that he can be one of the game’s greatest players once again this season now that his PED suspension and wrist and shoulder surgeries are behind him. 

“I feel way better than I did last year,” Tatis said. “Talent plus work ethic, it feels like this is gonna be special. … I really had a really good offseason. My confidence is through the roof, and I just want them to sit down and see what I’m going to do this season.’’ 

The Padres, who were impressed with the way he handled his suspension, owning up to his mistake, also are convinced that he’ll again be that same player who was given a 14-year, $340 million contract extension in 2021. 

Tatis won a Platinum Glove moving from shortstop to right field, but hit just .257 with a .770 OPS, much lower than his career .293 batting average and .965 OPS. 

“The hardest thing to do in the entire sporting industry is hit a baseball,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “You take 17 months off of doing it, and then you come back, it’s not easy to just jump back into it as maybe people would expect or hope. So he got his at-bats, he got through it. There were some ups and downs, which is, regardless of the player, the game is hard. 

“Now he’s got those experiences, got his offseason. Now it’s time for him to take that next step, getting back to the dominant player that he’s excited to be.” 

And if Tatis returns to form, who knows, maybe the Padres will be playing in October. 

“He’s been a Silver Slugger, All-Star and obviously what he can do defensively,” said A.J. Preller, Padres president of baseball operations. “I think that for us to contend and challenge and compete and go win a World Series, that’s probably Fernando being the best version of himself. And that’s being a five-tool guy that can dominate on both sides of the ball.’’ 

Around the basepaths

– The New York Yankees, who offered free-agent starter Blake Snell a five-year, $150 million contract before turning to Marcus Stroman last month, still have serious interest in him. They are waiting to see if his asking price drops on a long-term deal or if he agrees to take a short-term contract that could pay him in excess of $35 million a year. 

– The city of Oakland wants a guarantee from MLB that they will get an expansion team if they permit the A’s to stay at the Coliseum until their move to Las Vegas in 2028. 

There’s no chance of that happening, MLB officials say. 

The A’s instead could play the 2025-2027 seasons in Sacramento, with hopes they can retain most of their TV money. 

– The Baltimore Orioles, who had extensive talks with the Miami Marlins about starter Jesus Luzardo during the winter, could get back in touch with the news that Kyle Bradish will open the season on the IL and John Means is questionable for opening day. 

– Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora expressed what every baseball fan outside Los Angeles felt this winter in this painfully slow free-agent market. 

Boredom. 

“It was boring for the business, for the game, and there’s a lot of good players out there who should be somewhere getting ready for the season,” Cora told reporters in camp. “No news is not good for the business. 

“As a baseball fan, I believe the best deadline was 2021 because we had the lockout, and the last two hours of that day were crazy. Texas made their money and they won a World Series because they got two big boys over there [Marcus Semien and Corey Seager]. They did their job.” 

– The Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, and Baltimore Orioles are the favorites to host the All-Star Game in 2027, 2028 and 2029.  

– Touching gesture by the San Diego Padres to have the wife of late owner Peter Seidler and their children be part of the Padres’ opening spring-training meeting with staff and players. 

– The Minnesota Twins could be scary this season if Byron Buxton can finally stay healthy and be their everyday center fielder. He was limited to 85 games as a DH and pinch hitter last season. 

So far, so good. 

“The pain’s gone, so I’m a lot more happy,’ Buxton told reporters. “The last couple of years were definitely painful, just waking up, feeling like a knife is in your knee every morning.’’ 

– The Dodgers have been thrilled with Shohei Ohtani’s engaging personality with his new teammates. 

“People gravitate towards him,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says. “I think some superstars, you have that walking-on-eggshells (feeling). With Shohei, I know that’s what he would not want. He wants to be like everyone else and just help us win a championship. … 

“The thing about Shohei I’m really excited about is, all he talks about is winning. Speaking for everyone in the clubhouse, when you get a player like that and his only goal is to win a championship, that resonates with everyone.” 

– Talk about ultimate respect: Brewers veteran starter Wade Miley named his newborn son after his former manager with Arizona in 2011-2014, Kirk Gibson. 

The name: Trace Gibson Miley. 

“He was a huge impact on my career, definitely, and even my life,” Miley said. “How he carried himself and how he expected us to be. As hard-nosed as he came off as a player, which he was no doubt, the genuine care that he showed for us as players, especially when I was such a young player, it just stuck with me.’’ 

So what was Gibson’s reaction when Miley informed him? 

“He made a joke about why I didn’t name the first one [son] after him,” said Miley. 

– The Padres say they have about $20 million left to spend in free agency, keeping their payroll below $190 million, while trying to acquire outfielders and starting pitchers. The massive payroll reduction will allow them to avoid a luxury tax for the first time in four years. 

– Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that no expansion team will be ready to play before he steps down in January, 2029, leaving 2030 as the most likely starting date. 

– Several talent evaluators openly questioned the health of Seattle Mariners reliever Gregory Santos when he was acquired from the Chicago White several weeks ago. After all, he ended the season on the IL with elbow inflammation. Sure enough, he showed up at the Mariners’ complex feeling discomfort behind his shoulder and is questionable for opening day. 

– Signs behind the 11 home plates at the Washington Nationals’ spring training facility:

“I don’t care how fast you throw ball four.” 

– Congratulations to broadcaster Jenny Cavnar, who becomes the first female primary play-by-play announcer in MLB history after she was hired by the Oakland A’s. 

– NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. says he’d love to get a contract extension and stay with Atlanta the rest of his career, but Atlanta will wait. They have him under contract for $17 million a year through 2026, and two option years at $17 million in 2027-2028. The total value of the contract will be worth $124 million over 10 years for one of the game’s greatest players.  

– The Padres shelled out $280 million on an 11-year contract for shortstop Xander Bogaerts last winter believing that one day he would have to switch positions. 

Who imagined it would happen after just one year? He is now the Padres’ second baseman. 

“I think I’m really at peace,” Bogaerts said. “I think that deep down in my heart I was actually cool with it. I didn’t expect to be cool with it. But what more can I accomplish in this game? You know, the only reason I came here was to win a World Series. So if this is the way that we’re going to get one, so be it.” 

– Jen Pawol will work her first major-league spring training game on Feb. 24 when the Astros play the Nats, moving her one step closer to being the first female umpire in the major leagues. She’ll be the first female umpire to work a big-league spring training game since 2007. Pawol, who has umpired in the minors since 2016, is expected to be on the in-season call-up list. 

– The Philadelphia Phillies, who would like to sign starter Zack Wheeler to an extension before he hits free agency, have had trouble finding inexpensive pitching depth on the open market after unsuccessful bids for Jakob Junis, Jordan Hicks and Robert Stephenson. 

– White Sox veteran Michael Soroka, trying to regain his 2019 All-Star form after suffering two Achilles tendon tears, said he feels like a rookie again, hoping to make the starting rotation. 

“There’s a lot of guys in this clubhouse that are fighting for careers…” Soroka said. “That’s one thing [manager Pedro Grifol] made a point of letting us all know, that there’s a lot of opportunity on the table here. I’m one of the players that’s looking to take advantage.” 

– A promise is a promise: New York Mets infielder Jeff McNeil was home in San Luis Obispo, Calif., when he received a call from an automobile dealership. 

“The guy on the phone says, ‘Hey, your buddy bought you a car, we just need to know where to send it,’” McNeil told the New York Post. 

Yep, two years ago when teammate Francisco Lindor promised he would buy McNeil a car if he won the NL batting title in 2022, which he did hitting .326, Lindor finally delivered: a Ford Bronco Sport. 

– After speculation that Jordan Montgomery could return to the Texas Rangers, GM Chris Young shot that down.

“I don’t think there are any additions coming at this point,” Young said at the opening of the Rangers’ camp. “Our payroll is at an all-time high [$243 million]. Ownership has shown a great willingness to spend. But there are limits to where that goes.” 

– The Cleveland Guardians, after consulting with city officials and NASA members, have decided to have their April 8 home opener start at 5:10 p.m, nearly two hours after a total solar eclipse hits the area. 

– The Mets are paying close attention to Astros ace Justin Verlander’s delayed start to the season. His contract will automatically vest for $35 million in 2025 if he pitches 140 innings. And if it does, the Mets will have to pick up half of it at $17.5 million. 

– New Cubs manager Craig Counsell dismisses the idea that his opening clubhouse speech is instantly going to turn the Cubs into a playoff team. 

“There’s no speech that changes the world right now,” Counsell says. “That’s a big misconception, I think, about sports. They make movies about it, but it’s really about us connecting as a group.” 

– Most impressive spring training first impression belongs to Padres pitcher Yuki Matsui, who signed a five-year, $28 million contract during the winter. He began his introductory press conference with an opening statement, speaking in perfect English. 

 “Hello everyone. My name is Yuki Matsui. Hola. ¿Qué onda todos? Me nombre es Yuki Matsui. You can call me Yuki, Mat, Mats, whatever. … To San Diego and all Padres fans, nice to meet you. Mucho gusto. I promise you that I will always give my best to bring you joy with my pitches. My family and I are so glad to be a part of this beautiful city. So we would be very happy if you give us a warm welcome. Thank you very much. Muchas gracias.” 

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Brittney Griner is forever immortalized in Baylor Bears history.

The women’s basketball team retired Griner’s No. 42 on Sunday at Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas, in what was clearly a special moment for one of college basketball’s greatest players.

Griner held her hands over her mouth when a banner featuring her number was revealed and then tapped her chest and sent a kiss to the crowd when fans clapped for her.

‘Just full of emotion,’ Griner told ESPN during the Bears’ game against Texas Tech. ‘As soon as (the jersey) started to go up, that’s when I started to break.’

Current Baylor coach Nicki Collen stood beside her wearing a gold jacket with Griner’s No. 42 on the back and Nike sneakers with the digits on the toes. The two shared a hug during the pregame ceremony.

The school gave away illustrated BG posters and No. 42 T-shirts for the occasion. There was a ‘Dunk Like BG’ contest at halftime and Griner joined in on the fun.

Griner is the seventh women’s basketball player to have her number retired by Baylor.

“I’m honored to return home to Baylor and celebrate where so much of my journey started,” Griner said in a statement last month when her jersey retirement ceremony was announced. “I’m grateful to Coach Nicki (Collen) and the entire Baylor community and am looking forward to the opportunity to be back on campus, spend time with the team and have my family beside me to share in this incredible moment. Sic ’Em Bears.”

The Bears won the NCAA championship in 2012, Griner’s junior year, after a perfect 40-0 season. Griner averaged 23.2 points, 9.5 rebounds and 5.2 blocks. She was named National Player of the Year by multiple outlets and named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after tallying 26 points, 13 boards and five blocks in the title game.

In her four year career, Griner scored 3,283 points, good enough for fifth in the women’s basketball history books. She finished with 748 blocks, the most in the NCAA among men or women.

After she left college and joined the Mercury as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 WNBA draft, Griner had a strained relationship with Baylor. Current LSU basketball coach Kim Mulkey, who coached Griner at the Big 12 school, reportedly told her to keep her sexual identity private. Griner married her wife, Cherelle, in 2019.

In 2022, Griner was arrested in Russia and detained for nearly 10 months after authorities found vape cartridges in her luggage at the airpot. While the WNBA and United States government officials lobbied for her release, Mulkey largely kept quiet.

Collen expressed her support for Griner after Mulkey chose not to comment on the situation.

‘Knowing BG, knowing her, being around her, she’s a big kid,’ Collen said at the time. ‘To know her is to love her. I mean, honestly, she just is one of those people that radiates joy.’

When Collen was hired to replace Mulkey in 2021, she was in touch with Griner and made it a goal to retire her jersey.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Value City Arena was empty about three hours before Ohio State’s game against No. 2 Purdue on Sunday save for a specific section of the court.

From near midcourt toward the tunnel leading into the area housing the visitors’ locker room, roughly two dozen scarlet-clad ushers and arena personnel went over their gameplan for the afternoon. They were ready, should a reeling Ohio State team knock off Big Ten-leading Purdue, to get Zach Edey and his teammates off the court with as little incident as possible.

Sunday afternoon, practice made perfect. Four days after athletic director Gene Smith fired coach Chris Holtmann, interim coach Jake Diebler and the Buckeyes notched their most impressive win of the season by taking down the Boilermakers, 73-69, inside an arena that was nearly packed.

The win is Ohio State’s first against a top-five team since it beat No. 1 Duke on Nov. 30, 2021. The Buckeyes had lost three straight such games since then, each of them actually to Purdue.

Ohio State (15-11, 5-10 Big Ten) led for the final 22:28 against Purdue (23-3, 12-3). The Buckeyes had lost nine of their last 11 games while Purdue boasted the nation’s fifth-longest active win streak at nine.

Purdue tied it at 65-all on a Lance Jones 3-pointer with 1:39 left, but Jamison Battle reclaimed the lead on a jumper in the paint and after Zed Key stripped Edey, Battle drew a foul and hit two free throws with 34.1 seconds left to extend his streak without misses to 36.

That four-point lead was enough.

The Buckeyes pulled out all the stops. Instead of throwing out T-shirts to “the loudest fans” in the arena, as is tradition, Ohio State put program legend Aaron Craft on the scoreboard, where he pumped up the crowd just before tipoff. During a first-half timeout, 2022 first-round NBA pick Malaki Branham was recognized, and he gave Diebler a hug before heading into the stands.

The capper came during the final media timeout of the half, with Purdue leading 28-25. As “One Shining Moment” played over the speakers, Ohio State tacitly recognized the 1998-99 team whose Final Four appearance was vacated due to NCAA violations. The loudest applause at the end came for Scoonie Penn, who upon his arrival at the arena told The Dispatch that Ohio State would win Sunday.

At least, the loudest applause until Battle got going as the Buckeyes took control during the second half. After having gone 2 for 13 from 3 in his last three games, the Minnesota graduate transfer who came to Ohio State to reach the NCAA Tournament took a pass out of the post from Evan Mahaffey to hit a 3 for a 44-38 lead.

Mahaffey had tipped the ball away from Edey, to the crowd’s delight, and there was more to come. Edey was stripped on the next possession and failed to secure the loose ball, leading to a runout capped by a Battle 3-pointer as the roar continued to build. It grew louder still when Key stripped Edey and finally reached a crescendo when Battle buried a 3 from the left wing.

Three shots. Sixty-one seconds. A 12-point Ohio State lead. The Buckeyes were rolling, and although Purdue kept fighting, so did Ohio State.

Thornton led the Buckeyes with 22 points.

When Austin Parks, who had played in just one game since the Dec. 21 blowout against New Orleans, scored with 3:07 left in the first half, it marked his first career field goal as well as the first Ohio State lead of the afternoon. It also continued a late-half run from the Buckeyes, who trailed 28-21 when Zach Edey dished an offensive rebound to Mason Gillis for a floater in the paint with 5:51 left in the half.

Zed Key got it started when, seemingly stuck on the left baseline, he managed to spin free and hit a floater. Bruce Thornton followed on the next possession by drawing a foul on Edey, sending him to the bench for the remainder of the half with two fouls and 4:30 remaining. Thornton hit the free throws, and what would become a 14-2 run to close the half was underway.

The final points came from freshman Devin Royal, who grabbed a Key miss, spun and put it back to set the halftime score at 35-30. It could’ve been more, as Ohio State continually extended the final possession of the half when Roddy Gayle Jr. drew a foul while hustling for an offensive rebound and Scotty Middleton tipped an offensive rebound out for one final look, but when the ball got back to the freshman he airballed a 3-pointer from the left corner.

The run belied the start of the game, when Purdue scored the first eight points before Thornton got the Buckeyes on the board with a three-point play with 17:31 left. At the half, Edey had only 6 points and five rebounds.

Despite a litany of great free agents available this offseason, most of the biggest stars among them have remained unsigned. You’d think with so many teams looking to break through for a World Series title next season, that these names would be flying off the shelves.

However, their price tags have been unexpectedly exorbitant. MLB teams do not seem inclined to sign some of these impact players despite their incredible upside. It’s become something of a standoff as teams hope those star free agents will be too scared to go an entire season unpaid and will be willing to lower their prices. However, that clearly hasn’t happened yet.

Still, despite the lack of news, there is a library of rumors floating around that could hint at when and where the big-name free agents like Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, and Matt Chapman could sign. Here are the latest MLB free agent rumors.

Yankees are still interested in Blake Snell

Earlier this offseason, the Yankees offered Blake Snell a five-year, $150 million deal to come to the Bronx. Snell turned it down. Instead of offering Snell more money, the Yankees turned to Marcus Stroman, who had previously expressed interest in joining the Yankees. Many people thought this signing meant the Yankees were out on Snell.

HOT STOVE UPDATES: MLB free agency: Ranking and tracking the top players available.

Nope.

Bob Nightengale reports that the Yankees still have ‘serious interest.’ The team’s biggest problem right now is that they do not want to go very far over their initial offer. Nightengale notes that the Yankees are still hoping Snell’s asking price drops or that he’d be willing to settle for a short-term deal worth closer to $35 million a year.

The Rangers are not interested in Jordan Montgomery

Arguably the best free agent pitcher available, Jordan Montgomery is one of the hottest commodities in the league, but even the veteran left-hander is not immune to pricing out of a few team’s budgets.

At the beginning of Rangers’ camp, general manager Chris Young told reporters that he ‘[doesn’t] think there are any additions coming at this point.’ There was tons of speculation that Montgomery could be returning to the Rangers prior to this statement, and perhaps that statement by Young is merely a play for leverage against Montgomery’s agent. Young did state that the Rangers’ payroll is at an all-time high, and that they are willing to spend, but that he believes the money could be better spent elsewhere.

The Rangers are in need of pitching with Max Scherzer, Tyler Mahle, and Jacob deGrom out for the start of the season. However, the Rangers seem to believe that they are fine as is, and it’s hard to argue against that sentiment. Dane Dunning is currently listed as the team’s fourth starter on their depth chart. That’s incredible depth. While Andrew Heaney is the only proven southpaw starter on the Rangers’ depth chart, there clearly isn’t too much of an issue according to the Rangers’ front office.

Blue Jays could be out on big name free agents

After losing out on the Ohtani sweepstakes at the start of free agency, everyone expected the Toronto Blue Jays to be massive players during the offseason. They haven’t been though. They’ve been noticeably quiet for a team that just won 89 games and has seen its division rivals improve.

The Blue Jays seem content with where they are at though. Just a few days ago, Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins told reporters that ‘additions that would be of significance would mean some level of subtraction.’

The quote above seems to indicate that the Blue Jays’ front office does not believe any player available right now would lead to more success in 2024. At the very least, that addition would not be as impactful for Toronto as it would for another team.

The Toronto Blue Jays were considered one of the favorites to land Cody Bellinger for most of this offseason. If they are out, the door would be open for the Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners, and San Francisco Giants to make that move, especially the Cubs and Mariners. The Giants just agreed to a three-year, $42 million deal with slugger Jorge Soler. Prior to the signing, the Giants reportedly viewed Soler as a piece they would go after as a backup in case they didn’t land Snell, Chapman, or Bellinger. Soler’s deal does not take the Giants out of the running, but does create question marks surrounding their level of interest.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley is one of the leading voices of women’s basketball, and she offered some of the highest praise to Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark on Friday.

Staley, the two-time national championship coach and six-time WNBA All-Star, called Clark, who recently broke the NCAA’s women’s Division I all-time career scoring record, perhaps the greatest player in the history of the sport.

‘I don’t think that record’s ever going to be broken again,’ Staley told reporters on Friday. ‘I don’t. Like, the clip that she scores, and she’s not done yet. Like, she’s probably got, I don’t know, 15 more games left in the season. And to do it, probably, 30, 40 points a clip, I mean, what we’re witnessing is something quite incredible.

‘I think she’s going to go down in the history books as probably, arguably, the best player to grace our collegiate sport.’

Clark scored a career-high 49 points in the Hawkeyes’ 106-89 win over Michigan on Thursday to pass Washington’s Kelsey Plum as the women’s all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I history. The senior also dished 13 assists in the win.

The 6-foot guard leads the country in points per game (32.8) and assists per game (8.5) this season. She now sits at 3,569 career points, more than Plum’s 3,527.

The next record Clark could potentially break is the all-time Division I scoring record for both men’s and women’s college basketball. That mark has held steady for 54 years since LSU’s Pete Maravich set the mark with 3,667 career points from 1967-70. The 6-foot-5 guard averaged 44.2 points per game for his career, helping him set the current record in just three seasons.

That said, Clark’s 3,569 career points leave her well within striking distance of Maravich’s record: just 99 points away from setting the mark. Considering Clark is averaging 32.8 points per game, she could very well pass Maravich by the end of the regular season. Iowa has four games remaining before the Big Ten Tournament begins on March 6.

As Staley noted, Clark can further extend her record with four games remaining in the regular season; as many as three games in the Big Ten Tournament; and as many as six NCAA Tournament games. If Iowa manages to maximize the number of games they have left to play − and Clark continues to shoot as well as she has her entire career − she could come to own a long-standing record of her own.

Caitlin Clark stats

Career: 28.3 points, 8.1 assists, 7 rebounds
2023-24: 32.8 points, 8.5 assists, 6.9 rebounds
2022-23: 27.8 points, 8.6 assists, 7.1 rebounds
2021-22: 27 points, 8 assists, 8 rebounds
2020-21: 26.6 points, 7.1 assists, 5.9 rebounds